USA > Washington > History of Washington; the rise and progress of an American state, Vol. IV > Part 16
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The principal contestants for the prize were, Olympia, Steilacoom, Seattle, Tacoma and Mukilteo, although What- com, Port Townsend, Anacortes-then and for many years after nothing more than a land claim on Fidalgo Island- Holmes Harbor on Camano, and Penn's Cove on Whidby
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Island, had aspirations, and the people interested in them, although in some of them few indeed, thought for a time that one or the other of them might finally be selected.
Of all these towns, Olympia was the largest. The census of 1870 shows that it had a population of 1203, while its suburb, Tumwater, had 206, and there were 2,246 people in Thurston County. Seattle's population was 1, 142, and that of King County 2,164. Steilacoom was much smaller than either, and had already reached and passed its zenith. In 1858 when the Fraser River excitement was at its height, Balch, the principal proprietor of its townsite, had unwit- tingly given it its death blow. At the time he owned a lum- ber yard in San Francisco, a sawmill near the mouth of the Nisqually, a store at Steilacoom, and several ships that were doing a thriving trade along the coast. He spent much of his time in San Francisco, and was there when copies of Charles Prosch's Puget Sound Herald, arrived with news of the Fraser River gold discoveries, and sold so readily at five dollars apiece. Realizing that the new mines, if they should prove as rich as these early reports indicated, would be of immense value to the Puget Sound Country, he wrote his partner, J. B. Webber, to sell no more lots until further orders. When this order arrived in Steilacoom, buyers were numerous. Lots that had for a long time been offered at $50 each, could have been sold readily for $500 to $1,000. Buyers with cash in hand stood ready to take them, but under his instructions Webber could not sell, and before Balch could be notified of the situation they went elsewhere. From that time, the fortunes of the town began to wane. Balch died in San Francisco, in 1862, and five or six years later Prosch removed his paper to Olympia, where it became the Pacific Tribune, and when the contest for the terminus began
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in 1870, the population of the town was less than 700, and its people were without a leader or a newspaper.
The population of Tacoma was less than 200. Mukilteo located on Point Eliott, and now a part of Everett, was still smaller. The people of Olympia and Seattle believed, and with reason, that the contest lay between those two towns and both now put forth their best efforts to win the prize. Their efforts were greatly stimulated by the evidences of prosperity that they saw were following the work already begun. The owner of a claim on the Columbia, where the railroad managers wished to locate their river terminus and begin building their line northward, had been offered $10,000, and ten lots in the new town for his claim, but refused it; he wanted $50,000. The river terminus was then located at another point four miles away, after which the grasping ranch owner offered to take the ten lots for his ranch and was refused. As soon as road-building actually begun, speculation in town lots, both at the river terminus, and at prospective stations along the line began to be active. Prices advanced with every sale, and the most surprising expectations were entertained. Kalama was soon to out- strip Portland, it was said; it was sure to be the chief city of the Columbia; it might even excel New York or Chicago, and be the chief city of the coast and perhaps of the country. All this stimulated the hopes and expectations of the settlers in the hopeful towns on the Sound, particularly those of Olympia and Seattle. Surveying parties had already begun to appear in their neighborhoods, but after working for a time they disappeared, leaving people no wiser than when they came. The hopes which they aroused when they came, would be dashed when they retired, or when it would be learned later that they were at work in some other
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neighborhood. Finally in December 1870, the citizens of Olympia appointed a committee, with Hon. Elisha P. Ferry who was then the surveyor general, at its head, to confer with Director Rice and Thomas H. Canfield, who were then in charge of the railroad company's interests on the coast. By these gentlemen they were told that they were not authorized to select the terminus, and that it would not be selected before the following June. They were also assured that the com- pany had no interest in land speculations; that the intention was to connect the river with the nearest practicable point on the Sound, and that they as the representatives of the company, were impressed with the desirability of making the point of contact at the most desirable place, as they were apprehensive that after the road had once touched deep water its land grant would follow it no further.
The members of this committee were cheered with the assurance that the company's desire was to reach the Sound at the nearest practicable point, as that seemed to be Olympia without doubt, though they were also disturbed by the sug- gestion in regard to the land grant. That intimated that the "nearest practicable point" might be some distance farther down the Sound.
Evidently some effort was necessary, or at least desirable to make sure of securing what was desired, and during the succeeding weeks the Olympia Branch Railroad Company was organized, with a capital fixed at $400,000, to build a branch road from Olympia to connect with the Northern Pacific track at the nearest point southward. It was expected that this company would take charge of future negotiations in the city's interest, and prepare itself to offer inducements that could not well be refused. But it was not easy to raise $400,000 in Olympia at that time, and subscriptions to the
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stock of the branch company came in but slowly. The people talked of the project with enthusiasm, but they were not altogether united in support of it. Finally it was proposed to petition congress for the 1,337 acres of mud flats at the head of the inlet, to be offered to the company for terminal grounds, and a petition was accordingly prepared. The Branch Company then communicated with General John W. Sprague, and J. W. Goodwin, who by this time had been placed in charge of the Northern Pacific interests, in place of Rice and Canfield, who had returned to the East, and were by them encouraged to persevere in their efforts. But congress did not look with favor upon the proposition to further endow the new railroad to which it had already made a liberal grant of lands, with a kind of land that it was supposed to hold in trust for the state when it should cease to be a territory, and the petition was refused.
The citizens were then again appealed to. It was pro- posed that each property owner should contribute half of all the land he owned, whether in lots or acres, to be given outright to the railroad company, provided it would locate its road to Olympia before May 1, 1872, and build and oper- ate it before January 1, 1875. This proposition, hard as it was, was received with favor by many. They realized that the opportunity was one not likely to be offered soon again. Indeed it would never be offered again, since this was the first railroad to come to the territory; another was not likely to come for many years, and to bring it to the town, at that time, would secure many advantages that no future road could give. But others professed to believe that the road must come to them anyway, and they would do nothing, and so he proposition was, for the time being, aban- doned.
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Meantime, the railroad was steadily extended northward, and people watched its progress with increasing interest. Settlers along the line found their property increasing in value in a most satisfactory way. Speculation in town property at Kalama continued, and lots were bought and sold at city prices. But there was little demand for property in any of the towns on the Sound. The people of Olympia began to be despondent. The offer they had made the com- pany remained unnoticed for many weeks. They could get no information save such as could be obtained from observa- tions along the line, where four or five hundred white men and seven or eight hundred Chinamen were shoveling dirt and laying rails. It was not until Christmas day, 1871, that a letter was received from Messrs. Sprague and Goodwin saying that "the company would comply with the first con- dition they had made, by causing a railroad to be located, before May Ist, next, connecting the Columbia River with a point on the navigable waters of Budd's Inlet," and asking for a right of way from Bush's Prairie to deep water.
While this was not a specific promise that Olympia would be the terminus, it was received with satisfaction. People easily assured themselves that if the road came to Olympia, as promised, it would end there; it would be the first point touched on the Sound and therefore must be the terminus. With this assurance, which rapidly grew into conviction, the people took confidence. The price of town property ad- vanced at once, and kept advancing until wholly unlooked for prices were asked and paid. New buyers arrived daily. The hotels were filled to overflowing. Rents advanced in proportion to the advance in real estate prices, and every property owner felt that his fortune was made. The town
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immediately took on an aspect of prosperity. Street improve- ments, which had heretofore advanced but slowly, were now pushed with vigor. The marshy part of Main street between Third and Sixth, which for several winters had been little better than a quagmire, was corduroyed, and the portion above it was planked from Sixth to Ninth.
But May came and went and no surveyors appeared to locate the promised terminus. The hopes of the people and the prices of their property began to decline. Late in June, Chairman Blinn wrote to the headquarters which were then at Kalama, asking if the promise made was to be kept, if so, when and where the promised line would be located. He was informed in reply, under date of July 3, that "The line of railroad runs to the east side of Budd's Inlet to the Billings or Wylie donation claims, and a point will be selected on one of said claims for a freight and passenger depot, where said line will terminate."
This assurance was accepted as satisfactory, and the hopes and activities of the people at once revived. The good feeling thus established continued until the forty-mile sec- tion, which was to be completed during the second year, was finished, and the road builders began to prepare the way for the second section which would reach the terminus. Then people saw to their sorrow, that these operations led toward the northeast, through Yelm toward Commencement Bay.
It was now evident that Olympia was not to be on the main line at all, and in March 1873 a meeting of citizens was called to take such measures as could be devised to protect, or if possible to advance the interests of the town. For twenty years at least, it had been not only the political capital of the territory, but the commercial capital as well.
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Steilacoom had disputed its supremacy, in a commercial way while Balch lived, but since his death there had been but little competition. Olympia merchants had supplied all the towns, the mills and the logging camps on both sides of the Sound, and along the rivers to the south and west. The miners also had bought their outfits there. Most of the ships that came to the Sound, except those owned by the mill companies and employed exclusively in their service, came to her harbor. The local transportation lines had their headquarters there. But all this was likely to be changed now unless something could be done to secure a connection of some sort with the railroad.
No practicable plan for securing what was needed was suggested at the meeting. Nothing but a branch railroad to connect the town with Tenino, fifteen miles away, seemed to promise the results desired, and it hardly seemed possible that the money necessary for such an undertaking could be provided. The citizens were despondent. Their property was no longer salable. Rents decreased. Many buildings were without occupants. Owing to some improvidence of management the public schools closed for lack of funds, and to complete the misfortunes of the place, one of the princi- pal merchants ran away with a large sum of money belong- ing to the firm, leaving his partner in embarrassed circum- stances.
While the people of Olympia were thus awaiting the loca- tion of the terminus with anxiety, though not without hope, those of Seattle were looking for it with confidence. Though their town was as yet little more than a lumber camp, it was beginning to have a foremost place among the mill towns of the territory. The big mills of that day were at Port Gamble, with a capacity of 100,000 feet per day. Those of
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Port Madison could cut 60,000; those at Seabeck 50,000; those at Port Blakely 40,000. In Jefferson County, the mills at Port Discovery had a capacity of over 50,000, and those at Port Ludlow 40,000. There were two mills at Knappton, in Pacific County, rated at a capacity of 37,000 feet per day each. The capacity of Yesler's mill was 40,000, while that of Williamson & Co. at Freeport, on the opposite side of the harbor, could cut 35,000 feet per day .*
According to the census of 1870, Walla Walla was the most populous county in the state and the richest. Its population was 5,302 and the valuation of its property $3,187,808. The population of Clarke County was 3,081; and its property valuation $803,029. The population of Thurston County was 2,246; property valuation $1,185,473. King County's population was 2,164, and its property valuation $1,002,389.
But Seattle was on the east side of the Sound, while most of the other lumbering towns were on the west side, and therefore at a disadvantage, from a railroad point of view. Moreover, the coal mines in King County had by this time been prospected with some care, and some of them had been so far opened that samples of their product had been tested with fairly favorable results. Tobin, Fanjoy, Mattice and Eaton had found coal on Black River as early as 1853, and had some hope of wealth from it, before the three last named started for the gold mines at Fort Colvile in 1855, and were murdered by the Indians. After the war other prospectors had found coal on the Issaqua, Coal Creek and at various points on the Cedar and Green rivers. Samples from these
*Puget Sound Business Directory and Guide to Washington Territory. Murphy & Harned, compilers and publishers. Olympia 1872. The capacity of Hanson, Ackerson & Co.'s mill at Tacoma, is not given in this publication.
REV. GEORGE F. WHITWORTH, D. D.
Born in England in 1816; came to the United States in 1828; graduated from Hanover College in Indiana in 1838; crossed the plains to Oregon in 1853, and to Puget Sound in 1854. He organized the first Presby- terian church at Olympia in 1854, and in 1855 another one in the neighborhood of Grand Mound and Chehalis: he established a school at Olympia and was superin- tendent of schools in Thurston County for several terms. He was twice president of the territorial university.
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ouiity, the mills
5 Con & mbis Acht s Medo de dito asknappton,
,000 feet, per day mas "( virem' nota ment me blobios to, andwhile that
per day,*
18- Walla Walla was the mu-t and the richest. Its population w the property 53,187,808. The Cle Vony: 1a4 3.581; and its propemy mulaninn of Thurston Coun y Ppe ** xxxxx 51, 185.473. King County's [po da se koji property valuation $1.002,389 ro ston this out side of the Sound, while mont con lankeang inww, were on the west side, and or . losdismage, from a railroad point of view. Tcp ip king County had by this time re, and mumje of them had bech hei product had been tested Tobin Favjoy, Mattice and Blok Kiver as early as 1853, and Www before the three last named Fort Colvile in 1855, and were Alter the war other prospecton 004. Coal Creek and at various ( tos. Samples from these
wir lo Washington Territory Olympia 1872. The ma, is not given in this
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several measures had been brought to Rev. Dr. Whitworth and Rev. Daniel Bagley, who, while not specialists by any means, were convinced that most of the measures from which they came were valuable, and the discoverers were much assisted by their learning, imperfect as it was. In later years, men of practical experience had examined the pros- pects, and purchased interests in them, and the Coal Creek and Newcastle veins had been so far developed that con- siderable quantities of coal were brought to the harbor, part of the way by tramway and part by boat .* The Renton mine had also been so far opened that considerable quanti- ties of coal for that day, were sent out in a similar way. While but little of the product of these mines was made avail- able for use at the time, the people realized the value of coal for the purpose of transportation and manufacturing, and confidently believed that these mines would have a consider- able influence in fixing the terminus of a railroad when the time should come.
But there were still other reasons which gave people con- fidence at that time. The Snoqualmie Pass, by which the Klikitats had crossed the mountains to attack Seattle in 1855, was believed in that day to furnish the most favorable route across the range. Governor Stevens had adopted it
*Means of transportation are comprehensive enough for the present demand. It consists of a narrow gauge railroad from the mine to the lake (Washington); arriving there the cars are run on board of scows, on which tramways are laid; these scows are towed to the head of the lake; thence the cars are run over another railroad, and drawn by horse power a quarter of a mile to Lake Union, where they are again placed in scows and towed across the lake, a distance of one mile; thence they are again placed on a track and taken to Seattle, a mile distant, by a donkey engine. The mine yields from 50 to 100 tons per day as required, but the average quantity taken out is probably the former figure. Murphy & Harned's Puget Sound Business Directory 1872.
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as the most available, and had recommended it as the route by which the main line of the railroad to the Sound, would ultimately cross the mountains to end at Seattle. His map shows this location of the line, and in all his speeches and addresses, and in many of the letters he had written after making his survey in 1853, he had spoken of Seattle as the terminus. In a very able letter to the Vancouver Railroad Convention in 1860, he had embodied tables, showing the length of the various sections of the road, and giving esti- mates of the cost of building them, and in these he had men- tioned Seattle only as the western terminus. The various surveyors sent out by the company after it was formed, and by Jay Cooke & Co. had seemingly approved the governor's recommendations, and even after building had been begun from Kalama northward, General Tilton had been em- ployed to make some surveys from Seattle eastward, and southward all of which seemed to indicate that the builders of the road had no other terminus than Seattle in contempla- tion.
So far the railroad company had experienced no difficulty in getting money since Cooke & Co. had undertaken the sale of its bonds. The admirable advertising which the bank was doing was producing satisfactory, and more than satis- factory results. The line of the Northern Pacific began to be talked about as running through "the banana belt," because of the glowing descriptions of its climate, as well as of the productiveness of its soil, which the bank's adver- tisements contained. While many were incredulous, and read these advertisements with a sneer, professing to believe, and some no doubt believing that the country was what they had long supposed it to be, a wilderness of ice and snow, and almost as barren as the Arctic region itself, the bonds
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continued to sell. The directors of the road seemed to fancy they had found a genuine Fortunatus purse, and that Cooke & Co. would succeed to the end, as they had succeeded with the bonds of the government, which they had disposed of in a similar manner. They pushed their line rapidly west- ward to the Red River, and also built branch lines, for which there was at the time no pressing need, but which would in time prove profitable. They also pushed work on the Western end, as they had agreed to do, and during the sum- mer of 1872 sent out a second committee, composed of five members of the board of directors, to settle some questions of location along the line, and select the Western terminus. These gentlemen, accompanied by their chief engineer cruised about the Sound for a week or more on the steamer North Pacific, visited all the points which aspired to become the terminus, talked with their citizens, and received such offers as they were prepared to make to secure the coveted prize .* This committee did not determine which of the towns on the Sound should be the terminus, but narrowed the choice to three, Tacoma, Seattle and Mukilteo, leaving the full board to make the final decision. They however, decided against Olympia, Mr. Smalley says,t "because the receding tide left its port a wide expanse of mud and mussel shells for half of every 24 hours. Steilacoom seemed to be upon a strait rather than on a good roadstead. Seattle, then a petty lumbering place, of perhaps two score houses,
*The people of Seattle tendered them 7,500 town lots, 3,000 acres of land, $50,000 in cash, $200,000 in bonds, and the use of a considerable part of the shore lands in front of the town for terminal tracks and depot purposes.
+History of the Northern Pacific Railroad, by Eugene V. Smalley, New York, G. P. Putnam & Sons, 1883.
¿It was a town of 1,142 people as shown above.
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was objectionable because of its steep hill and lack of level ground for depot yards and sidings. The other places lower down the Sound were too far distant from the Columbia River." "They wanted to start building," continued Mr. Smalley, "at the nearest point on the Sound where they could find a good harbor, good shore facilities for wharves, and plenty of cheap land to acquire for the future city. So they pitched upon Tacoma on Commencement Bay, as the place best fulfilling all these conditions."
Nearness to the Columbia became a far more important consideration after this committee reached New York than it had seemed while they were on the Sound. The sale of bonds had fallen off during their absence, and the company was beginning to be pressed for money. The liabilities already incurred had become pressing, and it was difficult to meet them. The president of the company had resigned during their absence, and General Cass, one of their number, had been elected in his stead. He found the task before him a most discouraging one. Not only had the resources of the company failed for the time being, but it was beginning to be apparent that the country was in a very unsatisfactory condition financially. The large volume of paper notes issued during the war had been reduced only moderately. They still circulated at a discount. Business was distrust- ful, or beginning to be so, of the ability of the government to pay on demand, and a crisis was impending that was not to be much longer delayed.
The committee of directors had been careful to give no indication of what their conclusions or impressions were while on the Sound, and when they left for New York, the people on the coast were as ignorant at to what their inten- tions were as when they came. Sometime later Director
GEN. MORTON M. McCARVER.
This famous pioneer and city-builder crossed the plains to Oregon in 1843; was speaker of the House of Representatives under the provisional government; went to California soon after gold was discovered, and finally, in 1867, founded and named the city of Tacoma.
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ЯНИЯАЗОЙ. И ХОТЯОМ УАО
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bas boiszopaib su blog Lotts rooz sintotilso ot, trow .FFETOOST to itho edt bomen Bhs bobfrudi Ldgins visantinued Mr. oxbe Sound where they could
Mest shot facilities for wharves, and ol dy berg land to equipo for the future city. So they picard women Ti mms an Commencement Bay, as the place
Start . if Colombie became a far more important coop der also commimo reached New York thar i had vesuril while they were on the Sound. The sale of bomls Sed Taller off during abed absence, and the company to premed for money. The liabilities I become pressing, and it was difficult
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